Garrett Scott, an Ann Arbor resident who lives in the 4th Ward, has revealed himself as the man behind the 20-pound carp.Courtesy of Garrett Scott

Garrett Scott, an Ann Arbor resident who lives in the 4th Ward, has revealed himself as the man behind the curtain. He is the 20-pound carp.

"I want to thank my campaign manager and social media coordinator @bibliophagist for his hard work over the past several weeks," the 20-pound carp tweeted this week, pointing 500-plus followers to the personal Twitter account of an antique bookseller who considers Theophilus Gates the thinking man's Lorenzo Dow.

Scott, still posing as the 20-pound carp, also sent out a tweet congratulating 4th Ward council member-elect Jack Eaton on his win.

"I know my opponent shares my abiding love for Ann Arbor," the carp tweeted. "I look forward to his term. I hope he will dare to be weird, if only on occasion."

From NPR to Huffington Post to ABC News, media outlets throughout the nation picked up the story of one fish's unlikely campaign for public office.

Through the election, Scott's identity was a closely held secret, even as he spread a handful of campaign signs throughout the 4th Ward.

Scott is no longer hiding the fact that he was behind the social media campaign to get a 20-pound carp elected to City Council.

"I'm still a little stunned by the rise of the Twenty Pound Carp," Scott said via email. "I imagine he mostly caught on because of the ease with which a bad pun could be made out of the whole affair. (Fishy candidate, bottom feeder politician, etc.)

"The aesthete in me of course hopes the weird little world he lives in — with its 'Sayings of Chairman Brandon' and University of Michigan navy and urban planning for a golden past age — held up at least something of a mirror to our own town."

In the end, Eaton easily won, pulling 89 percent of the vote. There were 209 total write-in votes in the 4th Ward, including 84 for actual write-in candidate William Lockwood, suggesting as many as 125 might have gone to the 20-pound carp.

Across all five wards in Ann Arbor, as many as 273 write-in votes, in theory, could have gone to the 20-pound carp, based on an analysis of election results, though no one at the clerk's office is hand-tallying votes cast for the fish.

If anyone does want to count the write-in votes for the 20-pound carp, a Freedom of Information Act request can be filed to review the 13,351 ballots.

Scott said he spent about $100 altogether on the campaign. Now that things are winding down, his focus is back on selling books, but he said the 20-pound carp could make a comeback at some point if something gets him worked up enough.